"Like most people who enjoy mucking about in streams," writes environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb in his smart and delightful Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, "I've had my share of beaver encounters. I was always impressed by their underwater grace, their ingenuity, and their familial devotion."
Eager takes a deep backstream dive into the life and mind of the beaver to show why this fascinating rodent is essential to our ecosystem. Goldfarb begins his tale approximately 500 years ago, when fur traders nearly caused the beaver's extinction. He then skips forward in time to the present day. Across the United States, writes Goldfarb, the beaver wreaks havoc on streams and carefully manicured lawns. If it weren't for the "Beaver Believers," a coalition of scientists and activists working to restore the North American beaver to its natural habitat, the animal would once again be an endangered species. Among the most amusing people that Goldfarb meets is Kent Woodruff, a biologist in the state of Washington who built a beaver "love shack" to encourage mating.
Throughout the book, Goldfarb makes clear that the beaver is a keystone species on which other animals greatly depend for survival, and why it's important to stop trapping the animal and learn how to protect it. "Eager is about the mightiest theme I know," he writes. "[How] we can learn to coexist and thrive alongside our fellow travelers on this planet." --Amy Brady, freelance writer and editor